Online purchase from USA - need advice to resolve £100+ UPS charging error

Miles_W

I would appreciate it if anyone could offer advice on how to resolve a complaint I have involving UPS.

I ordered an item online from the US (a hoodie for $50). International Shipping & Handling ($12.99) was paid with the order, so $62.99 in total. With the exchange rate and transaction fee, the total charge on my credit card was £54.

I understood that I was to be responsible for paying import VAT (20% on total cost, approx. £10.80) plus agent fees (I believe UPS charge £11.50 for this), so in total I was expecting an additional charge of around £22.30 from the courier.

I was not at home when the item was delivered. I received a message from the babysitter saying “you owe me £157.15”.

I rang him straight back. It turned out he had answered the door to the UPS delivery driver and was told that there was a charge of £157.15. When he questioned that it seemed a lot of money, the driver confirmed that was the charge owing on the package and asked for a card payment. The babysitter is a young lad, and being a bit naïve and possibly intimidated, handed over his bank card. The driver gave someone the card number via his headset; he then returned the card and said the payment would come out that day or the next. He then handed over the package and left.

The babysitter is a teenage student with a part-time job on minimum wage. He doesn’t live at my address nor does he have any link to the package. He can’t afford that sort of fee. I’ve paid him back so he is not out of pocket.

When he told his mother, they rang his bank, but the payment had already been taken and could not be stopped. They also rang UPS and were told they would need me to call, as the package and invoice were in my name.

The customer service I have experienced from UPS has been abysmal. I have telephoned numerous times over the past month and have been told conflicting information:

• On the day of the delivery I was first told that nothing could be done as the invoice had not been posted onto their system. Later that day I was told by someone that the full amount would be refunded onto the card used for payment. I passed the phone to the babysitter who supplied his card details for a refund.
• A week later the refund had not happened. I was told by someone that there was no record of my earlier conversations. An invoice query was raised for recharging the shipping costs back to the supplier.
• A few days later I was told that my query had been passed to another department and would take some time to be processed.
• On another call I was told that it had to be charged back to the US and could take 10 to 15 days.
• On a later call I was told that it could take up to 20 days before issuing a refund.
• It’s now more than a month later and every time I call I get the same story – query still open and being processed.

(The above list does not include other calls where I have been put on hold for half an hour until I hung up, and so on).

The £157.15 charge is clearly wrong. It looks like shipper has charged the freight charges to me, even though I’d already paid for shipping. The breakdown of the total amount on the invoice UPS provided is as follows:

Freight £103.79
Import VAT £32.78
Freight charges £9.08
Brokerage charges £11.50

I opened a case on Resolver. The UPS agent who responded at first told me that the £157.15 was paid to customs and is therefore non-refundable, when I pointed out that customs only charge VAT and not freight charges, he then told me that as it was the shipper who made the error, they are not responsible, and will not issue a refund. (I will be able to escalate the case on Resolver next week.)

I have tried to contact the merchant in the US. They do not have a telephone number on their website, so contact has been via the email contact form. Last message they sent back to me was about 2 weeks ago, along the lines of:

“We apologize for the delay in responding to your email. We are receiving a higher than normal volume of inquiries due to our current warehouse transition.”

I suggested to the babysitter that he could raise a Visa dispute. He contacted his bank, but they said that because he had willingly handed his card over, the transaction is regarded as authorised and they won’t dispute it.

Where should I go from here?

Jumblebumble

Miles_W wrote: »

I would appreciate it if anyone could offer advice on how to resolve a complaint I have involving UPS.

I ordered an item online from the US (a hoodie for $50). International Shipping & Handling ($12.99) was paid with the order, so $62.99 in total. With the exchange rate and transaction fee, the total charge on my credit card was £54.

I understood that I was to be responsible for paying import VAT (20% on total cost, approx. £10.80) plus agent fees (I believe UPS charge £11.50 for this), so in total I was expecting an additional charge of around £22.30 from the courier.

I was not at home when the item was delivered. I received a message from the babysitter saying “you owe me £157.15”.

I rang him straight back. It turned out he had answered the door to the UPS delivery driver and was told that there was a charge of £157.15. When he questioned that it seemed a lot of money, the driver confirmed that was the charge owing on the package and asked for a card payment. The babysitter is a young lad, and being a bit naïve and possibly intimidated, handed over his bank card. The driver gave someone the card number via his headset; he then returned the card and said the payment would come out that day or the next. He then handed over the package and left.

The babysitter is a teenage student with a part-time job on minimum wage. He doesn’t live at my address nor does he have any link to the package. He can’t afford that sort of fee. I’ve paid him back so he is not out of pocket.

When he told his mother, they rang his bank, but the payment had already been taken and could not be stopped. They also rang UPS and were told they would need me to call, as the package and invoice were in my name.

The customer service I have experienced from UPS has been abysmal. I have telephoned numerous times over the past month and have been told conflicting information:

• On the day of the delivery I was first told that nothing could be done as the invoice had not been posted onto their system. Later that day I was told by someone that the full amount would be refunded onto the card used for payment. I passed the phone to the babysitter who supplied his card details for a refund.
• A week later the refund had not happened. I was told by someone that there was no record of my earlier conversations. An invoice query was raised for recharging the shipping costs back to the supplier.
• A few days later I was told that my query had been passed to another department and would take some time to be processed.
• On another call I was told that it had to be charged back to the US and could take 10 to 15 days.
• On a later call I was told that it could take up to 20 days before issuing a refund.
• It’s now more than a month later and every time I call I get the same story – query still open and being processed.

(The above list does not include other calls where I have been put on hold for half an hour until I hung up, and so on).

The £157.15 charge is clearly wrong. It looks like shipper has charged the freight charges to me, even though I’d already paid for shipping. The breakdown of the total amount on the invoice UPS provided is as follows:

Freight £103.79
Import VAT £32.78
Freight charges £9.08
Brokerage charges £11.50

I opened a case on Resolver. The UPS agent who responded at first told me that the £157.15 was paid to customs and is therefore non-refundable, when I pointed out that customs only charge VAT and not freight charges, he then told me that as it was the shipper who made the error, they are not responsible, and will not issue a refund. (I will be able to escalate the case on Resolver next week.)

I have tried to contact the merchant in the US. They do not have a telephone number on their website, so contact has been via the email contact form. Last message they sent back to me was about 2 weeks ago, along the lines of:

I suggested to the babysitter that he could raise a Visa dispute. He contacted his bank, but they said that because he had willingly handed his card over, the transaction is regarded as authorised and they won’t dispute it.

Where should I go from here?

You need to strongly advise your babysitter not to hand over his card to random people who knock on your door as he may not be so luck to have a person such as your self kind enough to reimburse him

Next stage is an email to the CEO of UPS in UK politely asking them to resolve the matter

The bank would need a formal complaint and then ombudsman on the basis that UPS have fraudulently pretended that money was due to HMRC when it wasn't
Ignore anyone who tells you I am wrong as they cannot possibly know what the recipients of your complaints are going to do.

Miles_W

Jumblebumble wrote: »

You need to strongly advise your babysitter not to hand over his card to random people who knock on your door as he may not be so luck to have a person such as your self kind enough to reimburse him

Yes I think he's learned his.lesson. He feels bad about it but he was only trying to be helpful. I'm sure I made some money mistakes when I was his age.

Jumblebumble wrote: »

Next stage is an email to the CEO of UPS in UK politely asking them to resolve the matter

OK - I found contact details online, worth a try.

Jumblebumble wrote: »

The bank would need a formal complaint and then ombudsman on the basis that UPS have fraudulently pretended that money was due to HMRC when it wasn't
Ignore anyone who tells you I am wrong as they cannot possibly know what the recipients of your complaints are going to do.

It was the customer services contact on Resolver that tried to tell me that the full £157.15 had been paid to HMRC. When I asked for a breakdown of Customs duty and VAT, so I could claim back from HMRC, he then backtracked and told me about the freight charges (which I already knew about because I had a copy of the invoice which came with the parcel).